Vegan
3104 recipes found
Slow Cooker Chickpea Stew With Lemon and Coconut
Soothing yet bright, this soup tastes like something that took careful attention, but really just requires throwing five ingredients into a slow cooker and letting it cook for hours. Dried chickpeas and cauliflower soften in the gentle heat, and the coconut milk thickens as the mixture cooks, seasoned with earthy turmeric and sweet lemon peel. While a little lemon juice balances the richness, the predominant lemon flavor here isn’t tangy but rather floral from the peels releasing their oils into the stew. Reminiscent of curries throughout South and Southeast Asia, it can be eaten over rice, or with sliced almonds or cilantro on top, but it can just as well stand alone.
Tajín Mango Cucumber Salad
Vibrant, refreshing, juicy and crisp, this salad is perfect for warmer days or any day when you need just a little pick-me-up. Coming together quickly, the combination of mango, cucumber and romaine is simply dressed with fresh lime and cilantro. Tajín, a popular Mexican seasoning made with chiles, lime and salt, adds a tangy and mildly spicy flavor, contrasting nicely with the sweetness of mango.
Sweet and Salty Frozen Grapes
This snack draws on the South Asian and Mexican culinary traditions of serving ice-cold fruit seasoned with spices and salt. Here, grapes get tossed in a punchy combination of lemon juice, lemon zest, chile flakes, sugar and salt, then frozen solid for a refreshing treat. The lemon zest is optional, but the flecks add a bright, citrusy note.
Nurungji (Scorched Rice)
People forget that rice isn’t just a blank canvas; it has a unique flavor all its own, whether it’s jasmine, basmati or sushi rice, or any other kind you and your family love. Scorching it helps you taste its nuance. Also known as socarrat in Spanish cuisine (when it crisps on the bottom of a paella pan) or tahdig (in Persian households), among many other names, scorched rice is a natural byproduct of cooking rice in a pot over fire. This simple recipe extends the life of leftover rice to achieve that crisp, tender rice, a lovely treat that doesn’t require the time it takes to tenderize uncooked grains.
Fresh Corn and Black Bean Salad With Corn Chips
This superquick corn and black bean salad is enlivened with crackly corn chips, in the spirit of salads like fattoush, panzanella and crispy noodle salad. When corn is at its peak, its subtly sweet raw kernels are plump and juicy, and the perfect addition to salads. Corn pairs beautifully with earthy black beans and this sprightly cumin-lime vinaigrette. The corn, black beans, cilantro and vinaigrette can mingle up to 4 hours ahead, so this make-ahead dish is perfect for a picnic, potluck, cookout, or simply dinner. For best results, toss in the corn chips and avocado just before serving.
Heirloom Tomato Sorbet
This tangy sorbet transforms peak-season heirloom tomatoes into a quenching savory-sweet treat. Flavorful and refreshing, it’s the platonic ideal of what summer sorbet should be. Reminiscent of a sweet gazpacho, the base comes together quickly: Add the tomatoes, sugar, water, lemon and a pinch of salt to a blender; purée the mixture until smooth; then pass it through a fine sieve directly into an ice cream maker. (No ice cream maker? This base makes an excellent granita; see Tip.) The quality of your sorbet or granita directly reflects your tomatoes, so opt for the ripest, most fragrant ones you can find.
Tomato and Bulgur Salad With Herbs
This earthy but bright salad comes together very quickly in just one bowl, and makes a wonderful side to a barbecue spread or as a light lunch with some soft cheese or a spoonful of hummus. Be sure to use the best tomatoes you can find; any assortment of your favorites will do. The pomegranate molasses is well worth sourcing for this dish, but if you can’t find it, you can simply up the amount of vinegar and maple syrup for a similar tart and sweet flavor.
Chakalaka (South African Vegetable Relish)
Chakalaka is an easy way to make the best of seasonal ingredients. A versatile dish, forgiving in all the right ways, this quick South African staple is hearty on its own, yet it can accompany almost anything, and can last for 10 days in the fridge. But all that generosity comes with some constraint: Balancing flavors here is a discovery, as you figure out how to adjust ingredients to your preference. Typically served with grilled meats or fish, it can be an easy way to have vegetables with every meal. Serve on toast, alongside a jammy egg, over pita with hummus or enjoy spoonfuls in a bowl by itself.
Jammy Zucchini
You might associate zucchini with meh flavor, or with “zoodles” (which are decidedly not the same as pasta, though some folks may try to convince you otherwise). But when you cook it in a hot pan with olive oil and garlic, as in this method from my book “Big Vegan Flavor” (Avery Books, 2024), zucchini can be exquisite — meltingly tender, jammy and unctuous. Serve over Whipped Tofu Ricotta, garnish with mint and serve with toasted bread for dipping; or fold into a pasta or potato salad. (Watch Nisha make this recipe on YouTube.)
Whipped Tofu Ricotta
With the same luxe creaminess and savory notes of ricotta, my signature tofu ricotta from my book “Big Vegan Flavor” (Avery Books, 2024) works smashingly well in any recipe that calls for ricotta. For a slightly looser texture, use firm tofu. Use this ricotta to add big flavor to any and all stuffed pastas, like lasagna. It’s also great as a sandwich spread or spread onto pizza dough. Dollop leftovers onto grain bowls or salads for a creamy element. For an easy spicy variation, stir in a few teaspoons of Calabrian chile paste. (Watch Nisha make this recipe on YouTube.)
Heirloom Tomato Salad With Ricotta and Chile Oil
Come tomato season, there is no wrong way to make a tomato salad, but this one from my book “Big Vegan Flavor” (Avery Books, 2024) is exceptional. Dollops of creamy ricotta gently swaddle meaty wedges of heirloom tomatoes, while shallots and garlic add a piquant bite. Everything gets drizzled with a mild chile oil and finished with the tomato’s best friends: fresh basil, balsamic vinegar and flaky sea salt. It’s so simple (and fantastic), there’s no excuse to not make it once tomatoes roll into season. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that this salad served with grilled bread is one of life’s finest summer pleasures. Bonus: The human body can better absorb the lycopene in tomatoes when it’s paired with a healthy fat, such as olive oil. So enjoy the heck out of that chile oil. (Watch Nisha make this recipe on YouTube.)
Tomato-Pepper Salad With Tapenade
This is perfect Provençal summer fare, with all the sweet flavors of the season. The tapenade, a pungent combination of olives, garlic, capers and anchovy, can be prepared by hand or in a food processor and can serve as a base to a bright salad of tomatoes and peppers. And it’s an ideal condiment for keep on hand, to pair with bright salads or serve over warm garlic toast.
Coconut-Lime Wedge Salad
This recipe provides the essential texture found in a classic wedge salad, but updates the flavors for summer, with a coconut vinaigrette and crunchy, sweet-savory coconut crumbles. Sweetened with agave or maple syrup and baked until crisped, the coconut flakes serve as a plant-based alternative to the usual bacon found in the wedge. The crumble can be prepared in advance, and can even be eaten as a snack on its own or put on top of a scoop of cottage cheese. The coconut-lime dressing is a little nutty and tangy, and makes this cooling salad very refreshing on hotter days and beyond.
Sweet and Spicy Summer Fruit Salad
Some of summer’s most notable offerings are stone fruit, tomatoes and basil. While they thrive in the sun, they gain even more flavor when dressed in a savory-spicy vinaigrette. In this spoonable salad, the components resemble a fragmented mosaic: Sweet stone fruit of any kind, from cherries to peaches to pluots, is cut small and tossed with juicy cherry tomatoes and aromatic basil in a chile crisp vinaigrette. The vinaigrette is simple to make, only requiring a bit of sugar to build on the fruit's natural quality, along with red wine vinegar to add fruity depth. Pair this salad with grilled or roasted meats, or just enjoy it on its own.
Zucchini Salad With Sizzled Pistachios
In this clever salad, fresh raw zucchini is bathed in a nutty oil accented with big bursts of jewel-like lemon; each bite is equal parts rich and bright. Warming the oil with the pistachios until they sizzle infuses it with their flavor. Whole lemons, peeled down to the flesh and then sliced, are then stirred into the pistachio oil. A little black pepper, spicy red pepper flakes and feta cheese (which is optional) turn this into a salad equally ready to grace a summer spread or pack ahead for lunch. It can also be a great side for hot-mustard grilled chicken, roasted salmon, sheet-pan feta or even just a bowl of hummus and some thick-cut toast.
Mango Pepper Relish
This savory relish extends mango’s reach beyond its season — because your memories of the fruit shouldn’t be the only thing that lingers. Here, mangoes, bell peppers and hot chile are simmered in a syrup of lime juice and sugar for a condiment that pops with citrus and heat. Pair it with off-the-grill chicken or fish, dot it on creamy cheese or dollop it on toasted bread. This relish will keep refrigerated for up to 10 days and frozen for up to 2 months.
Creamy Lemon-Miso Dressing
If I were a singer-songwriter, I would write a power ballad about my love for Kismet Rotisserie in Los Angeles. The shoebox-size, mostly takeout restaurant serves the kind of food I’d eat every day if I lived in the neighborhood: golden roast chicken, fluffy pita and perfectly seasoned side dishes piled high with vegetables. But what I love most are its sauces and dressings. Especially its miso-poppy seed dressing, which I set out to re-create a couple of years ago. At some point, though, my journey took a detour, landing me here with this recipe from my book, “Good Things” (Random House, 2025), at what just might be my new favorite all-purpose dressing. Tangy, sweet, creamy and rounded out with umami, it manages to hit every note you could want in a dressing without being cloying. Add some poppy seeds for classic flavor or leave them out to make the dressing more versatile for drizzling over roasted vegetables, in potato salad or anywhere else you can imagine.
Zucchini and Fennel Salad
It’s not properly summer until you have too much zucchini in your life, spilling out of your market bags and collecting in your crisper drawer. This recipe takes what might feel like a bumper crop burden and makes it a star of the season once more. Fresh, crisp and bright, this plucky, lemony shaved zucchini and fennel salad is easy to throw together for a lovely summer luncheon or dinner. An incredibly à la minute salad, the vegetables are basically softened in the moment with the salt and the acid, so make sure to serve this salad quickly for optimal texture and taste. While it is crispest and freshest as soon as it’s made, leftovers will be just as lovely, albeit not as crisp, the next day, and can be perked up with fresh herbs or even repurposed: Roughly chop and toss with arugula and cooked chicken for a great, hearty lunch. This is a salad that gives and gives.
Broccoli Soba Salad
Inspired by the flavors of crave-worthy yamitsuki, a Japanese cabbage dish named for its addictive qualities, this broccoli soba salad is an assured crowd pleaser. A brief marination in salt tenderizes the broccoli, making it more receptive to a humble yet powerful trio of seasonings: salt, garlic and sesame oil. The unlikely addition of vegetable stock paste or bouillon powder bolsters the emphatic umami of this dish; if you have MSG in your pantry, you could add a few pinches of that instead. Using both the flower and stalk of the broccoli adds both texture and crunch to the foundation of nutty soba noodles. This is the perfect prep-ahead dish, as it benefits from chilling to allow the flavors to meld and the soba to become firmer and less fragile.
Gin and Tonic Sgroppino
This bright, refreshing riff on the classic Sgroppino works perfectly with either lemon or lime sorbet, however be sure to use freshly grated lime zest to finish and ensure the drink leans properly toward gin and tonic. To keep it properly icy, make sure everything from the bottles of gin and tonic water to the bowl, whisk and final serving glasses are deeply chilled.
Rosé Sgroppino
Pink, bubbly and lightly bitter, this frosty drink works equally well as a palate cleanser, dessert or hot afternoon cocktail. While this recipe was created with sparkling rosé in mind, feel free to use another dry sparkling wine: Prosecco, cava, crémant or pétillant naturel. A Lambrusco di Sorbara (the lightest in color and higher in acidity of the Lambruscos) makes an excellent swap as well.
Asparagus and Tofu With Black Bean Sauce
While asparagus shines with light spring-like flavors, it also carries bigger and bolder seasonings extremely well. Here, tender asparagus is quickly seared to unlock its juiciness and then tossed with a salty, spicy and funky Chinese black bean sauce. Known as dou si (Cantonese) or dou chi (Mandarin), fermented black soy beans are made by inoculating cooked black soy beans with a mold similar to koji (which is used to make miso paste), followed by salting and drying them. While they look like wrinkled and shriveled watermelon seeds, they are intensely savory, with multidimensional umami that also hints at sweetness and bitterness. While store-bought black bean sauce is an easy convenience, making your own at home using fermented black beans allows more control over salt and spice levels (see Tip). This sauce will quickly become a weeknight workhorse, a quick way to inject a savory kick to vegetable or meat stir-fries, stews like mapo tofu and even salad dressings.
Melon-Mint Sorbet
This simple, generous sorbet comes together in a food processor and releases a blast of mint that’s evident in every spoonful. But best of all, it invites any kind of ripe summer melon, even watermelon. The texture is rougher than a true sorbet, somewhere between granita and shave ice. It’s plenty good as is, but to gild the lily, add a bit of raspberry syrup and a few festive berries.
Chilled Cucumber-Spinach Soup
This chilled soup is easy to put together and most welcome on a hot day. The soft tofu garnish, dressed with sesame oil and soy sauce, is a lovely contrast to the bright green base. It is worth hunting down shiso leaves or Thai basil at an Asian grocery. Their bright flavors add interest.